1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to door-mounted racks useful on cupboard doors having central panels surrounded by perimeter frames to permit mounting of a rack of a given size to doors of a variety of widths.
2. Background Information
Kitchen cabinet doors typically consist of a perimeter frame surrounding a central panel. The central panel is typically formed of thinner material than is the perimeter frame. Typically, the hardware used to pivotally mount the door to the cabinet contacts only the perimeter frame of the door, and avoids any contact with the central panel. Likewise, many door handles on kitchen cabinet doors are mounted to the perimeter frame of the door, and not to the central panel. Often the material forming the central panel is sufficiently thin as to not be able to accept threaded fasteners on one surface without causing visible damage to the opposite surface of the central panel. Further, the central panel is often not sufficiently structurally sound to bear weight loads that might be applied by the contents of any rack mounted to the door.
Racks have been constructed that include telescoping rack bottoms and guard rails and have side supports that expand or contract to fit a variety of sizes of doors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,122,336, to Berry, discloses a spice rack composed of sheet metal elements including a pair of side walls having apertured tabs or ears for receiving fasteners to secure the side walls to the perimeter frame of a cabinet door. A plurality of telescoping sheet metal shelves and bars are coupled to the side walls. The shelves and bars permit sufficient lateral adjustment of the spacing between the side walls to allow the side walls to be mounted to a variety of sizes of cabinet doors. The telescoping character of the shelves and bars contributes to an overall feel of insubstantiality in the resulting rack once mounted to the door. Additionally, the sheet metal construction is esthetically less desirable than a solid wood or molded composite structure of the same general size and character, but having fixed dimensions.
Thus, there remains a need for a rack of generally fixed size that is adapted to be mounted to the back of kitchen cabinet doors of a variety of sizes that avoids any support on the central panel of the door and mounts exclusively to the door perimeter.